Online purchasing and mobile apps have been a go-to in our lives both personally and professionally, and this trend is growing in the gift card world as well. Purchasing online gift cards are becoming the industry standard. According to First Data's 2014 Consumer Insights
survey, in comparison to 2013, more people chose online gift card purchasing. Purchasing online gift cards increased to 34% in 2014 – up from 26% in 2013. The purchase of gift cards using social networks, such as Facebook, increased from 8% in 2013 to 13% in 2014. Both plastic and e-gift cards can be purchased online. Overall, 81% of respondents planned on purchasing the same or more plastic gift cards than in 2013 and 84% planned on purchasing the same or more e-gift cards than in 2013. Gift card apps came to the forefront in 2014. 55% of consumers are interested in using an app to store gift card information on their mobile devices and 58% of consumers said they would prefer to use one app to store multiple merchants instead of using separate apps for each. With more than 13% of gift card purchases in 2014 made through the use of a mobile app, mobile apps are becoming mandatory for a successful gift card strategy. For more insight into the First Data Consumer Insights Survey
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